Division I - Biology, Chemistry, and Process Engineering

Start of the Biggest German Research Platform for Electrochemical Storage Systems – Research into Lithium-ion Batteries, Post-Lithiium Technologies, Fuel Cells, and Redox-flow Batteries

Electrochemical energy storage is a key technology of the 21st century. Now, the Center for Electrochemical Energy Storage Ulm & Karlsruhe (CELEST), one of the most ambitious research platforms in this area worldwide, has started operation. It combines application-oriented basic research with close-to-practice development and innovative production technologies. CELEST pools the know-how of 29 institutes of its partners: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Ulm University, and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW).

KIT Scientists Develop Method for the Specific Degradation of Laser-written Microstructures – Paper in Nature Communications.

3D printing by direct laser writing enables production of micro-meter-sized structures for many applications, from biomedicine to microelectronics to optical metamaterials. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed 3D inks that can be erased selectively. This allows specific degradation and reassembly of highly precise structures on the micrometer and nanometer scales. The new photoresists are presented in the journal Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05234-0).

Pilot Plant near Barcelona Produces Synthetic Natural Gas from Renewable Electricity and Carbon Dioxide – Its Core Component Is Made by INERATEC, a Spinoff of KIT

INERATEC, a spinoff of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and the Spanish company GAS NATURAL FENOSA are presently making an important step towards closing the carbon dioxide cycle. In Sabadell, Catalonia, they built a plant that produces synthetic natural gas from climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO2) and renewable hydrogen. The process is based on the production of hydrogen by electrolysis and its reaction with CO2 from biogenic sources, e.g. sewage sludge.

Innovative Method for Steel Strip Drying – KIT Coordinates ECCO Research Project in the Horizon 2020 EU Program

Thanks to a new furnace design, energy efficiency in industrial steel strip drying can be significantly increased and the size of the facility drastically reduced. Using the planned process, investment and production costs can be cut by at least 40 percent. This is achieved through the use of infrared radiant burner technology. Implementing this energy-efficient method is the aim of ECCO, a project scheduled to run for four years coordinated by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and funded by the European Union with around eight million euros.

KIT Scientists Design Chemical Compounds for Use as Passwords for Encrypted Information – Publication in Nature Communications

In the digital age, security of sensitive information is of utmost importance. Many data are encrypted before they enter the data highway. Mostly, these methods use a password for decryption, and in most cases, exactly this password is the entrance gate for hackers. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) use a new and highly secure approach by combining computer science with chemistry and a conventional encryption method with a chemical password. Their development is now reported in an open access publication in Nature Communications. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03784-x ).

Due to Livestock Farming, Germany’s Groundwater Is Polluted with Nitrate in Many Places – KIT Researchers and Their Partners Are Working on a Simple Area-wide Solution.

Nitrate concentrations of our groundwater are among the highest in the European Union. The main reason is overfertilization of fields with feces from livestock farming. Every year, a “liquid manure shower” of 200 million tons goes down onto German fields, the result being too high nitrate levels at one third of the groundwater quality measurement points. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with the Foundation for the Environment of Rhineland-Palatinate and an environmental engineering office, are working on a very simple process for the large-scale cleaning of polluted drainage water from agricultural areas.